Google ARCore

What is ARCore?

ARCore is a new technology component for AR applications by Google and the counterpart of Apple’s ARKit. ARCore was announced on the 29. August 2017 by Google and shortly after made available for chosen smartphones (among others the Google Pixel and the Samsung Galaxy S8). As a AR technology element for the operating system Android, ARCore is on the same level as ARKit and therefore provides the basic components “Recognition and Placing of objects in real size” and the “creating lighting of virtual objects as real as possible”. ARCore uses the Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO) for that, which links incoming camera data with the data of Gyroscope (Position and Rotation) and the data of the acceleration sensor. Movements and orientation of the smart device can then be accurately calculated and tracking established. Size relations between reality and virtual additions can be strictly compared at the same time.

Google ARCore Publication

ARCore as part of Android

ARCore is Google’s counterpart to Apple’s ARKit and brings AR technology to the Android operating system. The release video shoes ARCore’s key features as part of creative Entertainment Apps.

Anwendungen / Demos with ARCore of different developers

Google offers its ecosystem – the developers – its own platform to present and share experiments and demos with new technologies among each other. Experiments with Google, can therefore not only be seen as a Website for ARCore demo applications but also as a melting pot and source of inspiration for AR developers. In the following, selected demos will be introduced.

ARCore Demo by Rachel Park Goto and Jane Friedhoff

AR Experiments: Hidden World

Hidden World is a simple experiment that shows hand-painted animations combined with AR functions in the environment of its user. Via a tap on the camera picture the user can create “hidden worlds” and lure little creatures out of their hiding sports.

ARCore Demo by George Michael Brower

AR Experiments: Morph Face

Morph Face is a experiment in which the user can turn surfaces of their real environment into faces. The application uses shading in order to combine the camera input and the animated 3D geometry and create the Morphing-Effect.